Felix Aiwanger receives award from the Winter Stiftung für Rechte der Natur
The Winter Stiftung für Rechte der Natur (Winter Foundation for Rights of Nature) has honoured Institute research fellow Felix Aiwanger for his article “Verträge mit der Natur. Ein Modell zur Internalisierung externer Effekte?” [Contracts with Nature. A Model for Internalizing External Effects?] The annual foundation prize recognizes outstanding legal scholarship exploring potential paths and conceptions serving to improve the substantive protection of nature or its elements
The award-winning article deals with the question of whether rights of nature can also be contractual rights. The idea of nature as the holder of rights has become a commonly asserted proposition in legal discourse and is being put to the practical test in individual legal systems. Contractual negotiations help individuals to both better understand a counterpart’s interests and to take these interests into account in the decision-making process. In economic terms, contracts are a means of internalizing external effects. Aiwanger examines the extent to which the contract model can be applied to our interactions with nature in order to find ways in which humans can align their interests – in the sense of sustainable coexistence – with nature and to facilitate dialogue on the question of how to resolve conflicts between human and non-human interests.
Dr. Felix Aiwanger studied law at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München and conducted research there at the Chair of Private Law, Private International Law, and Comparative Law. His research interests have taken him to the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT) in Rome and to the law firm of Martin Kenney & Co Solicitors in the British Virgin Islands. In 2023 he was a legal advisor for the State Animal Protection Commissioner at the Berlin Senate Department for Justice and Consumer Protection. He has been employed at the Institute as a research fellow since January 2024.
Felix Aiwanger, Verträge mit der Natur. Ein Modell zur Internalisierung externer Effekte?, in: Stephanie Nitsch u.a. (eds.), Nachhaltigkeitsrecht im Konflikt, Nomos, Baden-Baden 2025, 253–269 (forthcoming)
Image: © Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law / Johanna Detering